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Making connections

Engineer Keith Von Der Heydt connects cables in Woods Hole prior to testing acoustic source drivers, in preparation for deployment for the “Surface Processes and Acoustic Communications Experiment,” also known as SPACE.  The objective is to understand how wind and waves, or anything that causes bubbles to form in the water, changes the propagation of acoustic signals, particularly those associated with acoustic communications. “It is a tough problem as sound speed in water is much slower, has much less bandwidth, and has more troublesome characteristics than radio (waves) in the air,” Von Der Heydt said.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)